(WHDH) – Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding relived her troubling past Tuesday morning on television.
Harding spoke with ABC’s Good Morning America in an exclusive interview about the alarming attack on Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Olympics. She also talked about the present and how she has moved on since then.
In 1994, Stoneham native Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the knee by a masked attacker at the US Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. The event was a key qualifier for the winter Olympics. Harding went on to win the championships in Detroit.
Harding claimed the attack left her in fear.
Investigators later convicted Harding’s ex-husband and accomplished of carrying out the attack. Harding has adamantly denied any involvement in the plot, but Tuesday she said she did overhear talk of the plan.
“I did, however, overhear them talking about stuff where, ‘Well, maybe we should take somebody out so we can make sure she gets on the team.’ And I remember telling them, I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I can skate,” Harding told GMA.
Harding insists she never connected that talk with the attack even after Kerrigan was taken down.
“This was like a month or two months before, but they were talking about skating and saying ‘Well, maybe someone should be taken out so then she can make it,” Harding added.
Harding did plead guilty to conspiring to hinder the prosecution. She was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $160,000. Harding was banned for life from competitive skating.
“I, Tonya,” a movie starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney, was recently released telling Harding’s version of the story. Harding said she’s offering no apologies to Nancy Kerrigan or anyone else.
“She’s got her life. I’ve got my life. We both have wonderful lives, and that should be all that matters,” Harding told GMA.
7News reached out to Nancy Kerrigan’s husband and manager, Jerry Solomon, and said Nancy has no comment at this time.
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